Andretti Autosport sponsor Butterball is sponsoring a pre-race IndyCar segment on NBCSN around drivers cooking turkey-based dishes, as the company tries to market that turkey is not only eaten during Thanksgiving. Butterball has been a sponsor of Andretti since ‘14, and the company was pitched last year by L.A.-based Short Shoot -- run by NBCSN analyst and former IndyCar driver Townsend Bell -- on the seven-part vignette series titled "What'cha Got Cookin." There will be six initial episodes before the final installment pits the two top point-getters against each other. The winner will get $25,000 to donate to a charity. In each clip, a driver makes the dish of his choice in their home or motorcoach before it is scored by judges. Short Shoot focuses on integrated branded media content, and it produced the “What’cha Got” series a few years ago that showed MLS players driving around in a Lamborghini as part of a competition sponsored by Continental Tires. Initial participants in the Butterball venture include Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay -- whose car is sponsored by the company -- plus Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden. Upcoming participants in the series are Andretti’s Zach Veach, Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti. Butterball handles its motorsports marketing in house.
COOKING UP INTEREST: Butterball CMO Bill Klump said the new IndyCar segment has exceeded expectations so far, as avid IndyCar fans have been tuning in -- and in some cases even creating internet memes -- around it. Bell said, “I realized that there was an opportunity to do two things -- first and foremost, continue to find new ways to entertain our fans with fun refreshing content, and, No. 2, do that in a way that also celebrated a brand’s partnership in a given sport.” On top of showing different turkey-based dishes, Klump said that the series fits in with how today’s consumers are on the go and looking for easy-to-make recipes.
